Contributions from the systematic review of economic evaluations: the case of childhood hepatitis A vaccination in Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this study was to present the contribu-tions of the systematic review of economic evalu-ations to the development of a national study on childhood hepatitis A vaccination. A literature review was performed in EMBASE, MEDLINE, WOPEC, HealthSTAR, SciELO and LILACS from 1995 to 2010. Most of the studies (8 of 10) showed favorable cost-effectiveness results. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the most important pa-rameters for the results were cost of the vaccine, hepatitis A incidence, and medical costs of the disease. Variability was observed in methodologi-cal characteristics and estimates of key variables among the 10 studies reviewed. It is not possible to generalize results or transfer epidemiological estimates of resource utilization and costs asso-ciated with hepatitis A to the local context. Sys-tematic review of economic evaluation studies of hepatitis A vaccine demonstrated the need for a national analysis and provided input for the de-velopment of a new decision-making model for Brazil.